Holder Calls for Better Data on Police Use of Force

Holder Calls for Better Data on Police Use of Force

The attorney general says the data would protect both police and civil liberties.

Published January 15, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder called Thursday for better record-keeping on how often police officers use force or are themselves attacked, saying current efforts to compile the data are incomplete.

With his remarks, Holder joined police union officials, academics and others who have urged more detailed statistical data on officer fatalities and deaths of civilians at the hands of police officers.

"This would represent a common-sense step that would begin to address serious concerns about police officer safety, as well as the need to safeguard civil liberties," Holder said in a speech honoring Rev. Martin Luther King.

The FBI annually publishes data on "justifiable homicides" by police officers, but those figures are widely understood to be incomplete since the reporting by local police departments is voluntary and not all submit their statistics.

The absence of reliable data was brought to the forefront by recent police-involved deaths that roiled the nation in New York and in Ferguson, Missouri. Efforts to explore how frequently officers use force were stymied by poor record-keeping. After the killings of two police officers in New York by a man who later fatally shot himself, the Fraternal Union of Police called for a better accounting of officer fatalities.

Holder said better data are needed on both categories to provide a more accurate picture of relations between police and the communities they serve.

"It is incumbent upon all of us to protect both the safety of our police officers and the rights and well-being of all of our citizens," Holder said. "We can, and we must examine new ways to do both."

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